Posts Tagged pretty cool

Felicia Day’s Origin Story of “The Guild” in Comics

Posted by mistergroonk in Comics, Interviews on March 26, 2010

“In the comic book form, I quickly learned that you don’t have any limitations as far as where you go,” she explained. “Location is the easiest thing, but the limitations on how much dialogue you can put into each panel and the idea of visual storytelling was pretty challenging for me to wrap my head around. It turned the whole way I told a ‘Guild’ story on its head.”

According to Day, she quickly learned that comic book writers not only have to pen a script but also have to be writers, directors and cinematographers for their work — something that took her by surprise when she agreed to bring the series into the comic world. Still, she prides herself on never shying away from a creative challenge.

Yes, believe it or not, world at large. There can be more writing in making a comic book than there is dialogue. Wrap your heads around that a second after you read the rest of Day’s interview on MTV Splash Page. We’ll get back to work on finishing our own comic.

Felicia Day‘s book came out last Wednesday(March 24). MTV Splash Page has their review of issue #1.

There’s a 2 page preview of “The Guild” below the jump.
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Scientists Reach Inside Vegetative Man’s Mind, Read His Thoughts.

Posted by mistergroonk in Science, Technology on February 17, 2010

Using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) they’ve been able to suss out what a Belgian man – injured in a traffic accident – was thinking. They say he was able to answer “yes” or “no” using only his thoughts.

Another Outer Limits episode takes the stage.

Dr Adrian Owen from the MRC in Cambridge co-authored the report:

“We were astonished when we saw the results of the patient’s scan and that he was able to correctly answer the questions that were asked by simply changing his thoughts.”

Dr Owen says this opens the way to involving such patients in their future treatment decisions: “You could ask if patients were in pain and if so prescribe painkillers and you could go on to ask them about their emotional state.”

It does raise many ethical issues – for example – it is lawful to allow patients in a permanent vegetative state to die by withdrawing all treatment, but if a patient showed they could respond it would not be, even if they made it clear that was what they wanted.

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Panelfly to Make Digital Comics Look Exquisite on iPad

Posted by mistergroonk in Apps, Comics, The Future on February 10, 2010

To date, this is the only reason the iPad interests us. Comics aren’t meant to be read on tiny mobile screens. They want to fit in your hand. They want to scroll vertically and horizontally without having to enlarge each panel to a readable size. According to Gizmodo, Panelfly and Sugercube put their heads together and created an app to be used specifically on the iPad.

The way the Panelfly iPhone app works is that you download the app for free from the app store and then add comics to your library through in-app purchases. Stephen Lynch, CTO and designer at Panelfly, hinted that the company is currently exploring several different purchase models for the iPad version…

Panelfly’s app would have sealed the deal for us buying the iPad this March. If only the damn thing played music or was half the current price point. Our iPod of many years recently gave up the ghost. The urge to replace our mini-music/podcast device grows greater everyday. If we wait to buy an iPad there’ll be no music. If we buy the iPod touch and the iPad we’d be paying twice for a singular device. it all boils down to the fact that paying iPod touch prices for a device that can only consume media is so 2007.

That and the fact we’re not a freaking millionaire.

(via panelfly, gizmodo )

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Google is Sneaky, Quietly Shares their Electronic Tablet Concept

Posted by mistergroonk in Books, Comics, Google-fied, Technology on February 5, 2010

While the world continues to express their like or dislike or lack of caring about the sexy, yet creatively impotent, Apple iPad, Google sneaks their ideas about what a fully functional electronic notepad should look and work.

Hey, Google! Have you met Bonner R&D?

Video under the jump.

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The Color of London Circa 1927

Posted by mistergroonk in History, Video on November 13, 2009

This early (1927) color film shows 10 minutes of remarkable vintage London

Ah, to be in London 82 years ago. Ever wonder what the past would be like without the now accepted visual cue of black and white? Wonder no more. Watch 10 minutes of the past, forever frozen in time in the technicolor tones of blue, grey, and sepia.

World War I Color Photos
Mashup Monday: Peacetime/Wartime Perspectives
America in the 1930’s in COLOR

(via boingboing)

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Animated Win: Making a Doctor Who Anime from Scratch

Posted by mistergroonk in Anime, Just Freaking Neat on November 3, 2009

The following observation was made possible thanks to the glory of planning ahead.

Time has been good to the mighty Otaking. Over the course of this year he’s been working on a Doctor Who anime. So far the results are outstanding!

Above this text lay three parts of the series thus far. We swear the Cybermen have never been more badass.

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Tuesday Tease: The Price of COLIN

Posted by mistergroonk in Marketing, Movies, Trailers on May 26, 2009

Marc Price had a dream and he made it real. Despite the unfortunate naming coincidence and working at a private car hire firm(British readers, please explain what this means), Price, reportedly, pulled together $70 and a handful of Facebook, MySpace and You Tube volunteers to make his entry to the never-dying zombie movie genre: COLIN.

…it was an attempt by the film makers to produce a low budget zombie movie that offered an original angle on the undead that would be of interest to both fans and newcomers to the genre.

Some where along the line the fact that he made a movie for $70 while using the various social networks mentioned above became more important than the movie.
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“The Big Escape” or When Little Keys Dare to Dream

Posted by mistergroonk in Art, Just Freaking Neat, LOL on May 26, 2009

The three day weekend is over. Which means, your days of relaxing and remembrances are up. There’s no escape from today. The inevitable return to The Grind(TM). But you can dream, can’t you?

You can *still* dream.

(via medicmike and Björn Bäcklund: who amused the heck out of us with this interlude between more serious modeling)

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Clicklicious: Ben Fry’s Visualization Eye

Posted by mistergroonk in Apps, Art on February 1, 2009

zip-decode

Ben Fry came to my attention via random friends. He has a fair amount of visualization projects to behold. My favorite is the Zip Decoder(seen above).

(via 7d, pentacleus, ben fry)

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What You Don’t Know about Octopi May Get You Killed

Posted by mistergroonk in Animals on November 9, 2008

Just a quick weekend drop provided by my friend Jer.

“We knew that he was bored as the aquarium is closed for winter, and at two feet, seven inches Otto had discovered he was big enough to swing onto the edge of his tank and shoot out the 2000 Watt spot light above him with a carefully directed jet of water.”

Director Elfriede Kummer who witnessed the act said: “We’ve put the light a bit higher now so he shouldn’t be able to reach it. But Otto is constantly craving for attention and always comes up with new stunts so we have realised we will have to keep more careful eye on him – and also perhaps give him a few more toys to play with.

“Once we saw him juggling the hermit crabs in his tank, another time he threw stones against the glass damaging it. And from time to time he completely re-arranges his tank to make it suit his own taste better – much to the distress of his fellow tank inhabitants.”

I’ve heard of octopus having surprisingly lucid behaviors which hint at more conventional ideas of intelligence. And by conventional I mean, ‘holy crap, they’re thinking on our level and may soon surpass us on the evolutionary chain.’ But I did not know they were this wily.

(via telegraph.co.uk)

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